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I'm having a little prolem with what additive to use to keep my 10% ethanol fuel from separating and causing problems.

I run my boat motor (175 Zuk ) for a half hour or so every few weeks, but am concerned with the fuel just sitting. I always cap off my tank on the way home and have used Sta-bil without fail on every fueling. Tank holds 80+ gallons of fuel. However to my knowledge Sta-bil doesn't protect 10% ethanol fuel from separating. For gasoline with out ethanol Sta-Bil has always done the job for me. But now I'm a little worried.So what do I use??? Boat hasn't seen water for 4 months and won't see water for another two months what do I do????

Also, Is allowing engine to idle for half a hour every few weeks enough???? I live in a fairly warm climate and have the boat parked under a boat port, batteries are plugged into a charger with maintainer all the time.?????? Is what I'm doing correct???? Please feel free to tell me.

Thanks in advance

Don

PS bye the way that's a 54 inch red fish in the picture, sure like to do that again.

It is good to run your engine to keep things moving but that does not solve the problem of the fuel getting old. Supposedly gas only has a 4 week shelf life without some kind of additive to keep it fresh. Stabil is a stabilizer so you are good there.

The next problem is E-10. From everything I have read, if you keep water out you should be good. It seems that condensation or a leaky fuel cap let water into the tank which causes the saturation level of the gas to max out then water accumulates in the tank. Others say this is fallacy. Who really knows? I use StarTron and have had great results. Actually StarTron is all I use as it is suppose to stabilize as well as protect against E-10.

Do a search on this site and you will find many treads taking about stabilizing, E-10, etc.

As Far As I Know Theres Nothing That Will Stop, Or Turnaround Phase Separation.
Other ,Than Keep Fresh Fuel In Your Tank.
The Only Product That Seams To Do Something Too Water In The Fuel That I Tested My Self,
By Putting GAS In A Glass Jar Then Add a Couple Drops Of Water To It. Then Add What Ever
To SEE if It WORKS. THE ONLY THING I HAVE SEEN BY DOING THIS IS WITH A PRODUCT CALLED. K100, It Change The Look Of The Water Wright Away, But I LET It SET For
Awile Then Looked @ It Again, And It Was Almost Impossible To See Anything But Gas.
It Did Somthing To The Water. changed IT SOMEHOW.
I have Tryed This With A lot Of Gas additives, All I Know Is K100 Did Something That i Haven`t Seen Anything Else Do Yet.

As Far As I Know Theres Nothing That Will Stop, Or Turnaround Phase Separation.
Other ,Than Keep Fresh Fuel In Your Tank.
The Only Product That Seams To Do Something Too Water In The Fuel That I Tested My Self,
By Putting GAS In A Glass Jar Then Add a Couple Drops Of Water To It. Then Add What Ever
To SEE if It WORKS. THE ONLY THING I HAVE SEEN BY DOING THIS IS WITH A PRODUCT CALLED. K100, It Change The Look Of The Water Wright Away, But I LET It SET For
Awile Then Looked @ It Again, And It Was Almost Impossible To See Anything But Gas.
It Did Somthing To The Water. changed IT SOMEHOW.
I have Tryed This With A lot Of Gas additives, All I Know Is K100 Did Something That i Haven`t Seen Anything Else Do Yet.

i have heard that the red stabil is not very good to use with ethanol fuel. They do make a marine version fro ethanol now and it is a dark blue. I have always used PRI-G without any issues. Among keeping fuel fresh it also helps with carbon build up, and b.c it is super concentrated it is cheaper to use than stabil anbd most other fuel treatments

I am thinking of putting in a 12v fuel pump as a recurculation pump with an extra fuel water separator that will come on with a timer to cycle 300 gallons of fuel to keep the water out. Don't know if it will work or not

__________________ humans have eliminated natural selection. morons are now a protected species. they breed. they drive. they vote.

We have had the E-10 fuel here since about 2003/4 and basically all I have done is use the regular Stabil (just started using the Marine formula). With the boat (old when I got it) some of the issues I had was a corroded anti siphon valve and water in the gas that required a carb rebuild. That was 5 years ago and it's been OK ever since. I did notice that the year that we got the E-10 gas there was red gunk in the bottom of the water separating fuel filter. But after that first year, nothing. And every year since I have dumped out the gas and there has been no water in it. So I leave the boat with whatever amount of gas + stabil is in it and in the spring it starts right up. I do the same thing with the yard equipment (mower, snow blower, leaf blower, weed wacker and hedge trimmer). They all start up easily as well. I do try to run them (I just stabiize, not drain) at least once a month so the gas doesn't evaporate in the carb, which is what causes problems. Mower is 22 years old, snowblower 11 years old, so far so good.

The only way to prevent phase separation is to prevent too much (more than .5% by volume) water from making its way into the fuel. Phase separation occurs when water and alcohol (ethanol) bond. Together they weigh more than gasoline, so they fall to the bottom of the tank. The remaining gas now has a reduced octane level. If the water/alcohol mix is drawn into the engine, it will cause the engine to run badly or even stall, and can cause corrosion in internal engine components.

Dry gas & K100 contain alcohol. Adding any alcohol to E10 makes it E10+ , taking the fuel out of spec. Engines will run on E10, but anything more is asking for trouble. I'd be more concerned about what a product does in a gas tank on a boat than in a test tube. Many of us remember the E-Zorb 'test' that looked so cool in a test tube, but actually lead to major carbon buildup.

you can mix Star Tron & Sta-Bil together without any problems. They both have a base of petroleum distillates (fuel), so no worries. Look at the MSDS of a product before you use it. If you see alcohol, think twice before adding it to E10.

you can mix Star Tron & Sta-Bil together without any problems. They both have a base of petroleum distillates (fuel), so no worries. Look at the MSDS of a product before you use it. If you see alcohol, think twice before adding it to E10.

Thanks Bill. My thought is that you would be combining and not negating in any way the benefits that both products promote.

i have heard that the red stabil is not very good to use with ethanol fuel. They do make a marine version fro ethanol now and it is a dark blue. I have always used PRI-G without any issues. Among keeping fuel fresh it also helps with carbon build up, and b.c it is super concentrated it is cheaper to use than stabil anbd most other fuel treatments

take a look at them. the red and green are the same, but the green is a higher concentrate. i've been using the red stabil at home for decades and started using it on the boat once e-10 came along; no problems. i will be switching to the green this year (can you believe it's actually cheaper in a marine store than buying the red in a local bigbox store--don't tell anyone!).